The Greek national team wants to continue its winning streak by facing Ukraine today (18:00, Alpha TV, sport-fm.gr) for the Eurobasket.
Victory in the top derby against the unbeaten Ukrainians and 4/4 will give Greece mathematically first place in Milan's group and a showdown with fourth-placed Prague on Sunday in Berlin for the last 16. On the contrary, a possible defeat can bring Greece even third!
Dimitris Itoudis, after the breaths he gave to Giannis Antetokounmpo yesterday, will have him available again. Giorgos Papagiannis, who turned up the heat against Great Britain, will take a lot of time again, while Kostas Antetokounmpo will hardly play again, who is more likely to get some minutes against Estonia on Thursday.
Ukraine is not a negligible opponent and it is probably the most difficult of the three theoretically weak groups in the group. Kings center Alex Len and Raptors shooting guard Svi Mykhailiuk stand out as names on Einars Bagatskis' roster, which features big bodies like Murcia's Pustovoi and Betis' Herun.
Second date, 19 years later
Greece and Ukraine have met just once more at Men's level. And this one in Eurobasket, in 2003 in Boras, Sweden, with the National team winning 79-73. The current manager of the EEC national teams, Dimos Dikoudis, was the top scorer with 21 points, while Francis Albertis had 17, Efthimis Rentzias had 14, and Christos Harisis and Yiannis Hatzivrettas each had 11. Greece, with Giannis Ioannidis on their bench at the time, although they went 3/3 in the group (they also defeated Turkey and Croatia), lost the crucial quarter-final against Italy (62-59) and eventually finished fifth in the competition.
Full action with 12 matches
Satisfying Tuesday's program, as there is action in all groups. The program highlights the Italy-Croatia battles for the 3rd group, Germany-Slovenia for the 2nd and Finland-Czech Republic for the 4th.
1 Group
Belgium-Turkey 14:30
Montenegro-Spain 17:15
Georgia-Bulgaria 20:00
Score: Montenegro 2-1, Belgium 2-1, Turkey 2-1, Spain 2-1, Georgia 1-2, Bulgaria 0-3
2 Group
Bosnia-France 15:30
Hungary-Lithuania 18:15
Germany-Slovenia 21:30
Score: Germany 3-0, Bosnia 2-1, Slovenia 2-1, France 2-1, Lithuania 0-3, Hungary 0-3
3 Group
Estonia-M. Britain 15:15
Greece-Ukraine 18:00
Italy-Croatia 22:00
Score: Ukraine 3-0, Greece 3-0, Croatia 2-1, Italy 1-2, Estonia 0-3, Great Britain 0-3
4 Group
Netherlands-Poland 15:00
Finland-Czech Republic 18:30
Israel-Serbia 22:00
Score: Serbia 3-0, Poland 2-1, Israel 2-1, Finland 1-2, Czech Republic 1-2, Netherlands 0-3